Hopefully some of the knuckle-headed Perry supporters here at the Memo (UG and few others excluded) will read the following and learn something ... but I'm not holding my breath.

---------------------------

Perry’s Rapid Decline
25 Sep 2011 by Mr. Roach

The Big Hearted Rick Perry

"It seems a lot of normal Republican primary voters, ranging from the hard core to the merely moderate, have lost faith in Rick Perry. He has blown it chiefly through his lack of preparation for the primary debates and his complete tone deafness on immigration. Specifically, his remark that it would be “heartless” to deprive illegal aliens living in Texas from the benefits of in-state tuition pissed nearly everyone off. Not only is his position wrong, but like George W. Bush, he has the annoying habit of implying bad faith and racism among his opponents. No one likes that.

I want every illegal alien in this country deported, and that’s not heartless, but rather an acknowledgment that our laws need to be enforced. No injustice is inflicted upon anyone here against the law by sending them back to their home countries. And the complaint that their native-born kids will be hurt is made highly selectively. Families are separated all the time for their parents’ lawbreaking. Immigration lawbreakers shouldn’t be given any special benefits in this regard. Worst case scenario, the whole family moves to Mexico . . . a place, recall, where Americans frequently go on vacation.

Was Perry asleep in 2005 when the amnesty battle was waged by President Bush? Apparently. Or, more accurately, he was stuck in the Texas bubble, the power of which cannot be underestimated. Texas’ elites are made up chiefly of native Texans or highly assimilated newcomers. Texans go to college in Texas, work in Texas, and can’t see too many reasons to leave Texas.

Texans also have, in recent years, white washed their own history–one of white Americans, uncomfortable with Mexican culture and government who decided to revolt–into a happy multicultural story of multiracial resistance to tyranny. I know this because I lived there for six years and found, while I am very conservative and like a lot about Texas, it’s odd combination of Southern country-club exclusiveness, self-satisfaction, and parochialism was a little much to bear.*

Texas is a genial, wealthy, successful, and mostly capitalist state. It also has a long history of white coexistence with highly assimilated Mexicans. Starting 15 years or so ago, the state became completely inundated with Mexican coolie laborers. But the leadership of Texas–mostly white and Republican–doesn’t mind this for a number of reasons. A great many rich Texans aspire not to work but to play. They have gotten rich by having land in the right part of the ugly-as-sin Permian Basin. And these folks, not much liking hard work, have a very a patrician attitude about Mexicans. They can’t think of this demographic without thinking of their loyal and hardworking servants. They believe just a little magnanimity will make them all successful, assimilated, and inclined to vote Republican. The Mexicans’ native political traditions and liberal-leaning domestic politics are completely ignored.

Second, Texas’ mostly white middle class, like the white middle class nationwide, is also finding manual laborer increasingly distasteful, so they are happy to have armies of Mexicans to mow their lawns, clean their homes, etc. Since these people are illegal, they don’t make too much of a fuss and don’t qualify for a great number of social welfare programs. It’s not uncommon to hear Mexicans compared favorably to blacks, who are considered more dysfunctional and less hardworking as a group. Of course, the false dilemma ignores that Mexicans in America have higher social problems across the board, as represented by their epicenters in the Rio Grande Valley or East LA.

Finally, because of the higher rates of assimilation of earlier generations of Texans of Mexican descent, particularly in El Paso and San Antonio, the leadership is sanguine about the prospects of assimilating the latest batch. Facts don’t count. While there are some signs of unease among the working class and even assimilated Hispanics, these people are not part of the power structure of the place. Plus, money coming out of the ground, as it does in Texas, tends to make everyone happy enough with their lot.

Perry has imbibed this cultural view. And he has not paid attention to the fact that Bush’s assimilation fight led to mass revolt by rank-and-file Republicans. Indeed, like Bush, Perry was probably surprised to see Hariett Miers opposed so vociferously after Bush nominated her to the Supreme Court. That’s how things are done in Texas; you wait your turn, and you’re rewarded. It’s old school WASP conformity and consensus building, coupled with cowboy boots. So you don’t make too much of a fuss about Mexicans or affirmative action or anything else “too controversial.” Being liberal on immigration is fairly common among Texas elites, partly because it allows them to feel inoculated against the charge of racism that has haunted the entire South. Further, a certain view of Mexicans is also a way for them to accentuate their distinctive Texan identity, which activity is extremely important to pretty much everyone you meet in Texas.

Perry does not distinguish illegals and other aliens from American citizens. If they live in Texas and are not completely anti-social, he views them with fatherly compassion. The displacement of blue collar native workers is not a terrible concern to him; in his eyes, like most upwardly mobile and urban Texans, it was an aspiration from early in life to work in an office (with air conditioning!) doing something respectable. Going out to the “ranch” on the weekends is enough to keep his manly street cred intact. So he presumes all people in Texas are happy to play farmer on the weekend, shooting guns and “removing brush,” while working in an office somewhere and living in the city. Illegals are there to do the real dirty work. Presumably, they’ll have the same aspirations, and thus a constant flood of new illegals must be brought in to do manual labor in what is a Ponzi Scheme of sorts.

Indeed, Perry’s Texas miracle is not such a miracle if you consider that many of its beneficiaries are illegal aliens and other non-Americans. The following statistics from the CIR report on the proportion of Texas jobs going to illegal aliens is not too surprising; the demographics have literally changed by an order of magnitude in the last ten years and have put serious strains on the jails, schools, hospitals, and other resources of the entire state:

* Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).

* In terms of numbers, between the second quarter of 2007, right before the recession began, and the second quarter of 2011, total employment in Texas increased by 279,000. Of this, 225,000 jobs went to immigrants (legal and illegal) who arrived in the United States in 2007 or later.

* Of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas, 93 percent were not U.S. citizens. Thus government data show that more than three-fourths of net job growth in Texas were taken by newly arrived non-citizens (legal and illegal).

* The large share of job growth that went to immigrants is surprising because the native-born accounted for 69 percent of the growth in Texas working-age population (16 to 65). Thus, even though natives made up most of the growth in potential workers, most of the job growth went to immigrants.

One George W. Bush was enough. The last thing we need now with our culture and economy in shambles is a half-educated and inexperienced Texas governor, indifferent to the plight of the native working class, cocooned in a state somewhat uniquely blessed with natural resources, whose foreign policy instincts have been honed from a lifetime of following college football more closely than current events."

Hopefully some of the knuckle-headed Perry supporters here at the Memo (UG and few others excluded because they don't fit the description) will read the following and learn something ... but I'm not holding my breath.

One George W. Bush was enough. The last thing we need now with our culture and economy in shambles is a half-educated and inexperienced Texas governor, indifferent to the plight of the native working class, cocooned in a state somewhat uniquely blessed with natural resources, whose foreign policy instincts have been honed from a lifetime of following college football more closely than current events."

This Perry basher, while obviously bitter, is a little more impressive than the run-of-the-mill. That's because he actually seems to know something about real life in Texas. That makes his slant more credible. The outsiders with all their yadda yadda and stats and quoting a suitable quote get pretty tiresome, like troll trash. But even this guy shows his hand. E.g. He wants every illegal rounded up and deported. Okay. Now how does Nativist Guy intend to get that done? Why doesn't he remind us that ONLY the Feds can do anything like that? Is it because he's so focused on bashing the Governor, he can't take the time and effort to clarify the actual situation?

Another thing. Assuming that Perry who knows the scene down there like Peoria does not is a non-starter, does anybody really think a Corporate Charley, like the White Obama, is the answer, or would even be an improvement? Yes? Who might they be who think this? And are they ready to take on Roger Stone?

RogerJStoneJr Roger Stone
Sadly I may have to do a full Eliot Spitzer on Mitt Romney--I will NEVER allow him to be President

gringoNOTE: Also, I noticed that Angry Nativist Guy said nothing about The Wall. Why not? That's one of the major rightwing critiques of Perry. Perry doesn't believe in what some see as a useless boondoggle and some rightwingers take seriously. Or does even this former Texan concede that an 1800 mile wall is beyond nutty? At any rate, why did he not mention this rightwing almost holy grail in his litany of reasons to trash Perry?

Hey DJ, thanks to Buck link, here's a chance to bash Perry on what he says about the burning border issue. Have at it.

PERRY///There's not anybody on this stage that's had to deal with the issue of border security more than I have, with 1,200 miles of border with Mexico. And our federal government has been an abject failure at securing our border. We've had to spend some $400 million of Texas taxpayer dollars to send Texas Ranger recon teams down there. But the idea that you're going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso and go left for another 800 miles to Tijuana is just not reality. What you have to have is boots on the ground. You've got to have 450 Border Patrol agents trained up, 1,500 National Guard troops. You've got to have the aviation assets in the air putting real-time information down to the law enforcement. We understand and know how to secure that border, but we can't do it alone. And the federal government has to step up and do what their constitutional duty is, and that is to secure the border with Mexico.

I'm sure this author of that essay is just expressing frustration when he says he wants all the illegals rounded up and deported. We all know the illegals already here are going to be granted amnesty. We also know illegal immigration will continue. Legal immigration will increase too. My question is: what's life going to be like in the USA come 2050 when there are 550 million people living here? I wonder how much a gallon of gas will cost? What will the standard of living be like for the masses when the population doubles whilst the availability of natural resources aren't increasing but declining?

I support Perry for the state of his state....but I believe gooperville supports magic underwear because it's "his turn".........ah yes, history does have a way of repeating itsself when we do not learn from our mistakes........

How magnanimous of you to plump for Trump! You do know that he's doing a big fund-raiser in FLA, and not for Obamneycare, right? For who, you ask?....That's right, for your anathema, DJ--- the Cowboy Evangelist, Rick Perry.

Since you've been so faithful, maybe Donald will listen to your critique of Perry. Have you tried emailing him? Don't forget to mention the 1800 mile Wall.

"You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election."

Finally tuned in. Has O'Reilly finally gone cockeyed from all the alcohol he has to consume to live his life as a whore spinning such rich men's crackhead lies? Never tuned into the beginning of the show before. Hilarious, as he lies they reprint everything in the chyron next to him to make the bullshit seem true. No better example in American society of "If you tell a lie long enough, someone will believe it" than his show.

Doesn't work. Only plays to his insanely hateful base.

I remember him on either "Inside Edition" or "A Current Affair"... one of those first tabloid shows. He wasn't cockeyed then. Guess he has to drink himself into a stupor every night to forget what a repellent fascist lying whore he is.

No spin zone? Please. His zone is so spinning he can barely hold on with both hands. No WONDER the poor man is cockeyed. Must see double 24/7.

I love how Monica laughs as she agrees with him. She obviously doesn't believe a word he's saying either as she tries to bring it down to a semi-believable level. O'Reilly though? I keep hearing his creepo sexual phone calls to his poor miserable interns. What a self-absorbed impossibly narcissistic letch. Still.

Ah, the hell of being impossibly rich and utterly worthless to all but the very Evil. O'Reilly can ask the very dead Michael Jackson if it was worth it when he himself gets to Hell. That is, if Limbaugh didn't get the "no spin" scoop first.

Oh. WP looked fantastic as always. I agree, she needs her own show.

Probably has too much class for Rupie and Fox though; doesn't have the high-class call girl wardrobe or three pounds of makeup down yet.

Or God only knows what kind of casting couches exist at that Hellhole.